Interventional procedures are used for diagnosis or treatment that involve, e.g., the following:    1) Making a cut or a hole to gain access to the inside of a patient's body, for example, when carrying out an operation or inserting a tube into a blood vessel.    2) Gaining access to a body cavity, such as the digestive system, lungs, womb or bladder, without cutting into the body. Such procedures include, for example, examining or carrying out treatment on the inside of the stomach using an instrument inserted via the mouth.    3) Using electromagnetic radiation (e.g. X-rays, lasers, gamma-rays and ultraviolet light).
For such interventional procedures, e.g., interventional radiology, interventional cardiology and/or electrophysiology measurements may be used. At the moment, it is known for electrophysiological (EP) systems to save data in a log file on the recording system itself This file contains information from, e.g., the recording system, the ablation system and the stimulator. Also medications can be added. The log file in these recording systems is a list with only text. It doesn't contain all information created during the procedure and it doesn't create a good overview; it is difficult to review data because it is all text. Different colors are used to mark different kind of events, but then still the list is very long and it takes much time to find the specific data you need.
Cardiology information systems containing a procedure log are known as well. These systems are not designed for EP procedures but for other cardiology interventions. The log file in these systems also consists of a list with text and doesn't contain much specific EP information. The information that can be saved in this log file therefore is incomplete for EP.
Reports can be created in both systems, but in both cases the reports will not contain all information needed. There is no system that combines all information of relevance into one report. Image information of X-ray systems and EP mapping systems that is acquired during an EP procedure is stored on the respective system hard disks. Sometimes there is a link between the EP mapping and the EP recording systems, but logging of events in such combined systems is not possible.
The known systems experience a number of problems. In the current EP labs a huge amount of data is created during an EP procedure by different pieces of equipment. Reviewing the data during and after the procedure is currently cumbersome as this information is saved in different ways; on systems, on disks and sometimes on the network of the hospital. Furthermore there is no time link between the different forms of data storage making it difficult to review the data in sequential order, as would be optimal to follow the subsequent procedure steps.
The disconnected data storage and resulting review on different systems make it impossible to create a good and complete EP report in an easy way.